NRIs show interest to invest in Punjab: Badal

Published: Tuesday, January 8, 2008, 13:35 [IST]

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Chandigarh, Jan 7 (UNI) Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today claimed that Punjabi NRIs have come up with concrete proposals and projects for the state in various fields ranging from education to industry, from tourism to media excellence.

These proposals came up during a meeting of the Chief Minister with some prominent NRIs at his residence here.

NRI teachers, including Mrs Mohini Basra from Canada and her sister Mrs Kulwant Padda from the US offered to stay back in India to train school teachers, especially in the teaching of English language. They also suggested student exchange programmes between Punjab and the US and Canada to apprise the children settled in these two countries of Punjabi culture.

''It is all the more important to imbibe the Punjabi culture, rich traditions and golden heritage among the younger generation settled abroad because they have become detached from their cultural heritage with the passage of time,'' observed Mrs Basra during her meeting with the Chief Minister.

At the meeting, Mr Balbir Singh Multani from Germany offered to set up a media institute at Mohali to run crash courses in journalism and mass communication with an objective to upgrade the professional skills of mediapersons. He also evinced keen interest to set up a state-of-the-art hotel management institute to provide world class education in of hotel management and catering.

Mr Satinder Singh from Norway showed interest to set up projects in the state to generate power from solar energy. He said that he had vast experience in the field and offered to provide technical know-how in collaboration with Punjab Energy Development Agency.

Mr T P Singh from UK offered to set up a film and TV institute in the state, as Punjab had a tremendous untapped potential of budding artistes.

Mr D S Khera from Canada submitted a proposal for setting up a vocational education centre at Alohran village in Nabha sub-division. He also offered to set up a driving training school in the state to professionally train the young drivers as Canada currently needs more than 5000 drivers of heavy vehicles.